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Friday, August 15, 2014

Oh Love. Love, love, love. Why love? And Why unconditional love at that? Why should we love someone, a group of people, animals, creatures, or an environment unconditionally? What does that even mean? And is it even possible to love unconditionally? The emotion of love pertains to the feeling and expression of deep admiration, affection, and fondness of an external thing: and that thing can be a person, a place, or some sort of object. Love can be expressed towards anything and anyone. Love itself is a force and power that naturally and organically lays dormant in the human body. Most of the time, it is quietly asleep in our mental and physical bodies. The expression of love is the expression of that force. Love is not something that is emitted out of our bodies naturally. The expression of love requires a stimulation of various chemicals and subtle forces; it requires our awakening of that energy and that force. It requires a deep-seated connection to the source power of the body that has the innate ability to express itself in any way possible: and that connection will allow for us humans to manifest that force as love. According to the ancient esoteric philosophies of yoga, this force and power of the body was referred to as Shakti. In the olden days, people were obsessed with the cultivation of this internal power. They believed that if they were able to harness such power and control it, it could grant immortality, enlightenment, healing and purification of the human body. But how to awaken it? How to awaken it, and control it? And more importantly, how to awaken, control and transmute that forceful "Shakti" into unconditional love? It is relatively easy to express love towards those that move us, inspire us, placate us and dote over us. But what about those that challenge us or anger us? What about those that upset us or disappoint us? Or how about those that hurt or offend us? And how about those that intentionally set out to harm others physically or psychologically? And what about those that incite fear in us? How is it even possible to direct our internal power of love towards such challenging and resentful people? Those challenging, resentful people are the obstacles and hurdles that we must conquer: both internally and externally. They are the wall that we must rise above in order to unleash our unconditional love on the world.

We all have relatives. We all have friends. We all have colleagues and peers that we must interact with on a daily basis. And, it is completely natural to express dislike and disgust for different people at different times. We live in a world where people will not always say or do things that we like. We live in a world where the people that we have held in high regard may disappoint us. The various political and business leaders around the world are constantly making decisions, passing laws, and conveying opinions that will irritate us and antagonize us. Are we wrong for getting upset and angry? No, not at all. After all, one of the great beauties of human nature is the expression of emotions. The key thing is, those dissenting emotions don't necessarily have rule or dominion over us. In the same moment we get angry, we have the potential to turn that aggressive energy into something else: quite possibly into love. But if we choose not to turn that energy into love, that resentment and bitterness can live in our body: like a destructive virus. That anger and hatred can take hold of us mentally and physically. That disgust and dislike can penetrate our entire existence and weaken our beautiful and amazing lives. By living in a negative space, we can become sick; we can become hurtful towards others as well as towards ourselves. By living in that negative space, we can become destructive to our unlimited creative potential. But by shaking off that negativity and by shaking free from those destructive binds, we can revitalize our entire existence. By not being attached to our hatred, our anger, our resentment, our fear, and our destructive emotions, we tap into a new potential: a higher potential. If we can truly shake free from disgust and dislike, we can really experience the beauty and magnificence of unconditional love. Because that same energy we use and expense in disliking or resenting someone or some thing, we can manipulate and direct that same energy towards the supreme cultivation of unconditional love.

The word unconditional means 'without condition'. When something is unconditional, that simply means that it occurs or takes place without any sort of condition. A condition is a state of existence or state of being: or even a state of expression. Conditional love would connote love that is based on a particular state of existence, being or expression of an individual, a thing, or an environment. For example, to love someone conditionally would imply that we love them because of a particular and unique expression. If that condition does not take place or fails to take place in a consistent format, the love is likely to be retracted: simply because the love is based and connected to that particular condition. If the condition disappears, love disappears. Examples: "I can only love and marry someone that is good in bed" or "I can only love people that of the same background / belief as me". These are conditions. Should the person "not be good in bed", love and marriage might not exist. Should the people "not be of a particular background or belief", love might not exist. Unconditional love on the other hand would be the exact opposite: "I can love and marry someone irrespective of whether or not they are good in bed" or "I can love people of any background or belief". These are non-conditions (or the unconditional, rather). In light of these non-conditions, love and marriage will take place regardless of sexual prowess; love of a people will take place regardless of their background or belief. So what's the point of unconditional love?

The ancient healers, prophets, sages and wisdom keepers of the various traditions have always believed strongly in the almighty power of love. They believed that love is the most transcendent of all emotional expressions. There are many fairytales and stories abound where love has healed and transformed entire nations. In many indigenous traditions, they believed love to be the force necessary to keep away evil spirits and pestilences. When the expression of love was at a low, it is said that societies and civilizations are more susceptible to diseases and destructive evils of the world. But the love that these people believed in is not the "hug and kiss for our faves" kind of love. It's not the "I love you so much that I'll accept your friend request" kind of love. The sort of love that they believed in extended its reach well beyond their immediate comforts and surroundings. The sort of love that they felt and expressed was directed towards each and every living and creeping thing upon the Earth. The sort of love that they felt and expressed was directed towards the evil doers: that they may not continue to live in their hateful and resentful ways. Unconditional love was the question and the answer for them: for all things. It is unfortunate that various belief systems have placed love on a scale to be balanced in order to see and justify who is more qualified a people to express love. The decline of love started because it was believed that certain people were more qualified to express it. Ignorance has taught mankind that in order to feel and express love, there is a requirement of a particular set of skills and aptitude; it required a particular education and experience. It was (and still is) believed that one person's love was more powerful than another person's love: and that one belief system's understanding and expression of love is more powerful than another belief system's. A psychological battle has ensued upon society that has left us thinking, believing, and feeling that love is tailor-made: and that one garment of love is more superior to another. But, we can end this battle with unconditional love: true love.

True love has no category. It has no reign or hegemony over another form of love. It cannot be contained or manipulated. Love in its purest form will generate and stimulate the same beautiful feelings in all creatures and humans alike. It is so powerful and forceful that it will bring in everyone, and keep out no one. When we become beings of supreme almighty love, everyone comes toward us. Even the evil ones have to surrender and do away with their terrible thoughts and actions in the presence of love. Evil is just another expression of that same force (remember Shakti?). That force can also be used for evil. However in the face of love, the force has no choice but to recognize itself and bow to itself. The force is simply oneness. With the mask of love on, evil then has no choice but to mirror what is in front of it. So if love is revealing itself to the world, the world must turn around and mirror that same love. Evil can only live if their is more evil around it. A virus can only survive in a host if it can successfully implant itself in the specimen it wants to take hold of. If it cannot assimilate itself successfully into the host, it will grow weary and die. When the vibration of true unconditional love penetrates and pervades our entire being, no evil or virus can take hold of us. That is why we must choose unconditional love. We must protect our environment. We must protect ourselves. We must uplift and inspire ourselves. We must purify ourselves. We must heal ourselves. We must love ourselves. We must enlighten ourselves.